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Pastor's Blog January 9, 2020
"Jesus Came to Manifest the Father"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
Ellen makes a startling statement about Jesus in the section of Steps to Christ we are concentrating on today: "The Son of God came from heaven to make manifest the Father" (2; 1977 edition). To many of us, this is not startling; we've become so accustomed to hearing or speaking this way about Jesus that, for many of us, it's simply the way we piously talk. But the various ways in which Jesus made the Father manifest to us force us to stop and take stock of our faith.
According to Ellen, Jesus manifested the Father's love to us by coming to us, because the Father is just like Jesus and anyone who has gotten to know Jesus knows exactly how the Father loves and thinks of us (2-3); Jesus manifested the Father's view of people by going about doing good and healing those he encountered - specifically, by preaching the good news of salvation to the poor and oppressed, as well as tangibly meeting the needs and respecting the dignity of those who were considered disgusting and sinful minorities in first century Palestine (3); Jesus manifested the Father's sense of fatherhood by being kind to children and treating them like personal beings instead of like property or inconvenient burdens (3); Jesus manifested the integrity of the Father by always speaking truth, denouncing hypocrisy, calling out disbelief, and confronting all manner of sin in a loving, tenderhearted, and gentle manner (3-4) - in a word, being "bowed with the tenderest regard to every member of the family of God" (4); Jesus manifested the Father's compassion by living a sinless life, so that the character of the Father could shine out in love for all to see (4); finally, Jesus manifested the Father to us fully and completely by his sacrifice upon the cross: "He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man" - and it was separation, not Jesus' separation from the Father on the cross but our separation from God because of our sin and rebellion, that broke Jesus' heart for us (4).
Friends, Jesus has shown us that the Father is the God who is for us because he loves us. If you doubt this, look at Jesus and take note of how he has already and for all time made manifest the Father to us.
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
